Tuesday, May 26, 2015

"Three people died in the overnight flash flooding that left many parts of Houston flooded this morning, authorities said today.

Houston Mayor Annalise Parker did not identify the fatalities, but said that two were found inside vehicles and another was found in a bayou and police suspect that the individual suffered from a heart attack while trying to push their vehicle.

"We have a thousand properties that have been visually inspected. We believe that there are as many as 4,000 with significant damage," Parker said this afternoon.

There are still 30 people unaccounted for in Hays County, according to the latest figures from a Texas Department of Public Safety spokesperson.

Some of the underpasses in Houston that flood in normal rainfalls were the first areas affected when 6 to 10 inches of rain fell by early this morning. Parker said there have been more than 1,000 cars left stranded on highways and roadways."

Saturday, February 21, 2015

He boasted he was "The Greatest," and in the prime of his charismatic career, many agreed. But as brilliant as Muhammad Ali was in the ring, perhaps his true greatness was outside it when he fought the United States government. His refusal to accept induction into the armed forces on religious grounds cost him millions and his heavyweight title, but in the end Ali came up victorious in the most significant battle of his life.

Thursday, October 9, 2014

Raven-Symone, best known as The Cosby Show’s Olivia and star of Disney Channel’s That’s So Raven, has decided she doesn’t like labels. Well, she only likes one label, I guess.

On OWN’s Where Are They Now, Raven sat down October 5 with Oprah to discuss her past accomplishments, future projects and plans, and personal life—including her recent coming out as a lesbian. Oprah asked if she wanted “to be labeled gay.” But Raven was having none of that labeling, and retorted, “I want to be labeled a human who loves humans, [and] I’m tired of being labeled. I’m an American; I’m not an African-American, I’m an American.”

“Oh, girl, don’t set the Twitter on fire!” Oprah said as she laughed and adjusted her seat.

Given the chance to walk her statement back, Raven doubled down: “I will say this: I don’t know where my roots go to. I don’t know how far back and I don’t know what country in Africa. I do know that my roots are in Louisiana. I’m an American, and that’s a colorless person.”

Though I’m certain she meant no harm, this is without a doubt a statement packed with problems. One pressing issue with this declaration is that she didn’t want to be labeled black. I say black because there’s a great deal of racism inherent in the term African-American. Africa is a continent, and to lump a whole continent into an ethnicity implies uniformity. Irish, Italian, Greek and French folk don’t get labeled European Americans.

Discussing blackness as a label is useless because black isn’t a nationality or sexuality, it’s an external identifier in this country, and one of great consequence. Sexuality can be masked; nationality can be masked and even changed. The negative effects of either can be blunted with money and privilege to a far greater degree than the negative effects of blackness––think housing discrimination––and this is due in large part to the ubiquity of blackness. Look at it this way: If you walk into a bank and deposit $1 million, what will they know about you without having to ask: your color, your sexuality, or your nationality?

Monday, August 11, 2014

(CNN) -- Oscar-winning actor and comedian Robin Williams apparently took his own life at his Northern California home Monday, law enforcement officials said. Williams was 63.

"He has been battling severe depression of late," his media representative Mara Buxbaum told CNN. "This is a tragic and sudden loss. The family respectfully asks for their privacy as they grieve during this very difficult time."

Coroner investigators suspect "the death to be a suicide due to asphyxia," according to a statement from the Marin County, California, Sheriff's office.

Williams married graphic designer Susan Schneider in Napa Valley, California, ceremony in October 2011. Schneider sent a written statement to CNN through the representative.

Thursday, August 7, 2014

U.S. action star Wesley Snipes is back on the big screen for the first time since his release from prison as he joins Sylvester Stallone and the cast of "The Expendables 3."

Speaking ahead of the movie's world premiere Monday, Snipes joked that Stallone had him in mind for the first "Expendables" movie but he was "just a little occupied at the time."

"They reserved a spot for me and when the opportunity came along he reached out again and said come join us, we would like you to be a part of this."

Snipes was sentenced to three years in prison in 2008 after failing to file income tax returns. He began his jail term in December 2010.

The movie makes reference to Snipes' time behind bars with a tax-evasion joke in the opening scenes.

"Whether I do something really funny or really stupid, it is okay with me," says Snipes. "I think that is what life is about. You can't take life itself too seriously."

"At the end of the day, nobody really cares. You're going to be forgotten anyway. The issues and problems that you think are like mountains that you have to deal with now, after time goes by, nobody cares," he continues. "Might as well have a good time with it."

The 52-year-old actor is currently looking for new action projects, with a return to the blood-soaked universe of vampire "Blade" at the top of his list.

"A lot of people are calling for it and I would like to do it," he says.

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

When you work for others, you are at their mercy. They own your work; they own you. Your creative spirit is squashed. What keeps you in such positions is a fear of having to sink or swim on your own. Instead you should have a greater fear of what will happen to you if you remain dependent on others for power. Your goal in every maneuver in life must be ownership, working the corner for yourself. When it is yours, it is yours to lose -- you are more motivated, more creative, more alive. The ultimate power in life is to be completely self-reliant, completely yourself.

You came into this life with the only real possessions that ever matter -- your body, the time that you have to live, your energy, the thoughts and ideas unique to you, and your autonomy. But over the years you tend to give all of this away. You spend years working for others -- they own you during that period. You get needlessly caught up in people's games and battles, wasting energy and time that you will never get back. You come to respect your own ideas less and less, listening to experts, conforming to conventional opinions. Without realizing it you squander your independence, everything that makes you a creative individual.

Before it is too late, you must reassess your entire concept of ownership. It is not about possessing things or money or titles. You can have all of that in abundance but if you are someone who still looks to others for help and guidance, if you depend on your money or resources, then you will eventually lose what you have when people let you down, adversity strikes, or you reach for some foolish scheme out of impatience. True ownership can only come from within. It comes from a disdain for anything or anybody that impinges upon your mobility, from a confidence in your own decisions, and from the use of your time in constant pursuit of education and improvement.

Only from this inner position of strength and self-reliance will you be able to truly work for yourself and never turn back. If situations arise in which you must take in partners or fit within another organization, you are mentally preparing yourself for the moment when you will move beyond these momentary entanglements. If you do not own yourself first, you will continually be at the mercy of people and circumstance, looking outward instead of relying on yourself and your wits.

Understand: We are living through an entrepreneurial revolution, on a global scale. The old power centers are breaking up. Individuals everywhere want more control over their destiny and have much less respect for an authority that is not based on merit but on mere power. We have all naturally come to question why someone should rule over us, why our source of information should depend on the mainstream media, and on and on. We do not accept what we accepted in the past.

Where we are naturally headed with all of this is the right and capacity to run our own enterprise, in whatever shape or form, to experience that freedom. We are all corner hustlers in a new economic environment and to thrive in it we must cultivate the kind of self-reliance that will help push us past all of the dangerous dependencies that threaten us along the way.

Think of it this way: dependency is a habit that is so easy to acquire. We live in a culture that offers you all kinds of crutches -- experts to turn to, drugs to cure any psychological unease, mild pleasures to help pass or kill time, jobs to keep you just above water. It is hard to resist. But once you give in, it is a like prison you enter that you cannot ever leave. You continually look outward for help and this severely limits your options and maneuverability. When the time comes, as it inevitably does, when you must make an important decision, you have nothing inside of yourself to depend on.

Before it is too late, you must move in the opposite direction. You cannot get this requisite inner strength from books or a guru or pills of any kind. It can only come from you. It is a kind of exercise you must practice on a daily basis -- weaning yourself from dependencies, listening less to others' voices and more to your own, cultivating new skills. As you progress on this path, you will find that self- reliance becomes the habit and that anything that smacks of depending on others will horrify you.

Friday, June 27, 2014

It’s a well-known story in sports lore: After Hakeem Olajuwon was taken first in the 1984 NBA draft, the Portland Trail Blazers selected Sam Bowie next. The player they left waiting on the board? Michael Jordan.

That was 30 years ago this week — June 19, 1984. Jordan, of course, was selected by the Chicago Bulls, beginning an ultra-successful professional career that would include six championships and the building of a brand that still transcends the basketball court. As the NBA Draft gets underway Thursday night, an elite handful of prospective draftees can only hope to emulate Jordan’s success.

Jordan played his last NBA game in 2003. Ten years later, he earned a cool $90 million, according to Forbes, thanks largely to royalties from his deal with Nike. That was more than he earned in any year during his playing days — and more than any other athlete, retired or active, except for boxer Floyd Mayweather. (Fortune estimates that Mayweather will earn $105 million this year, and says that’s a “very conservative” approximation.) The Jordan brand now generates about $2 billion in revenue for Nike, with the 51-year-old superstar getting a cut of every sale.

That earnings power helped Jordan’s net worth climb past the billion-dollar threshold earlier this month, but his ownership stake in the Charlotte Hornets is his most valuable asset. Forbes estimated Jordan’s net worth at roughly $600 million and valued his ownership share of the team, which has reportedly climbed from 80 percent to 89.5 percent, at roughly $400 million.

Jordan’s legend still carries weight from the sports fan’s perspective, too. In a Grey Flannel Sports Memorabilia auction that ended June 18, a Michael Jordan 1984-85 game-used road jersey — from a rookie season in which he started all 82 games and averaged 28.2 points per game — sold for $20,897 ($25,076 including auction fees).

In the same auction, a signed pair of Jordan’s game-used sneakers from Game 3 of the 1996 NBA Finals sold for $14,272 ($17,126 including auction fees). By comparison, the next two NBA memorabilia pieces offered in the auction — a Magic Johnson rookie jersey and a Shawn Kemp jersey — sold for a combined $15,112.

Thursday, May 1, 2014

I try tell em I try tell em / I got dat she want the cock back cuz I kill em / The sickest mc wit ah hammer that’s why I nail em / It was never hard for me to be fruitful look at my melon / I’m well in til' the day I’m well off / Highlight ah night up my book ah be ah tell all / Shit I got my thoughts together taught to never fake it / til' u make it / shit me and my cousin drink and have the realest conversations……And I keep em near and dear / so when I feel the pressure I apply em here and there / So if ever I’m feelin the need to be alarmed / It won’t be for long / It be workin like ah charm / And I mean that from the bottom / From ah distances payin close attention ain’t ah problem so when it comes to knowledge / I’ll be someone you’ll acknowledge / cuz my blood is of ah martyr and my ink is of a scholar / Can u dig it , lights can u dim em / This is how I’m livin its so in ah nigga denim / Its like listen.. all I do is tell truth / Retail details won’t miss ah belt loop /

Are they lookin are they lookin / I hope I ain’t do this shit for nothing better recognize, Don’t be like the rest and just miss me / Profilen cuz they look up as im leavin / We… never seein eye to eye / shittin on em flushin royal ya card just got declined / Still they say they ballin I’m like nigga is u high / and I thought I was on the tree but u really ride the pine / Phenin for the meanwhile if we break and make amends / rate'n Teyana Taylor on ah scale of 1 to 10 /...

...I’m seconds in and I’m on my second wind good thing I ain’t runnin game keep it real and represent / I said I know these bitches thirsty never contemplate / My creative juices flow when I concentrate / So u know me I forever grind / Start ah sentences then hit dem bitches wit never mind / Man fuck is wrong wit my ex / takin pictures of her pussy sent em to me via text / come to your senses you gotta misses this is true / I delete em after peekin u know how niggaz do /

Chorus x1 -- Yeah I said I grind times 3 / I know u might not like it but dis how it gah be / So say what u want about me / I bet real recognize me / I keep it ah hunnit yeah I keep it hunnit yeah I keep it ah hunnit yeah I keep it hunnit say what u want about me I keep it ah hunnit /